Neku's Headphones
by Chibieska
Summary: Sakuraba Neku was never given to changes before, but in the last years, after the end of the Reapers' Game, he had been changed a lot. Only two things remained the same, his inseparable headphone and his feelings for Joshua. [SHOUNEN-AI/ PROXYSHIPPING - NEKUXJOSH]


**The World Ends With You belongs to Square Enix.**

 **Note:** This is a work of fiction, elements of the original work can be altered for better compatibility with the story.

 **Note 2:** This work contains yaoi / shounen-ai, if you don't like, press (x) at the top of the page to exit.

 **Note 3:** Contains end-game spoilers.

* * *

HEADPHONE

Sakuraba Neku woke up early in the boring morning. He took the headphones off his head and set them down on the bedside table. He looked at the clock on the bedroom wall, still had time to get into the job.

Neku was 20 and a full-time job in a cafeteria in the poorest side of Shibuya. In spite of being extremely intelligent, he had never joined in any university. And despite the second chance he had received at the end of the Reapers' Game, his life seemed to be moving slowly toward none.

He get up, put on his uniform, and made a quick breakfast. He grabbed the forgotten headphones on the bedside table and hooked them around neck, took one last set in his unruly hair and left.

The month was May, the year was 2015 and Sakuraba Neku still wore headphones. Not all the time like five years ago. However, he still wore headphones. They were not the same, but they still followed the same pattern: purple and white plastic, no strings hanging to curl up. The previously selected songs were sent to the device via a wireless connection, so the commands, on / off, volume and song selection, were small buttons located on the right shell.

In 2010, he never removed the headphones, even though the battery was over and there was no song playing. The shells over his ears formed a comfortable barrier against the outside world, his isolated domain, his longing for solitude. People were boring and uninteresting, life was. His refuge was CAT's graffiti and the songs he'd only heard on headphones.

Now, with the second life he had received after dismantling events at UG, he still carried them. He did not wear them all the time, in parts because his boss would go crazy if he used them at work and in parts because at last his perception of the world had opened up. That place were boring full of uninteresting people, and life could be a big jerk, but not all was so bad. There were cool people like Shiki, Beat and Rhyme and there were fun things to do in Shibuya. It was always a new store, a different fashion, a restaurant with exotic foods.

He still used headphones to listen to music before bed, or on the way back home after job. There was a third reason why Neku stuffed the headphones and tried to isolate himself from the world. Joshua.

He tried hard not to think about him, and he usually did, but on that boring day, the boy's memories of light hair seemed alive in his mind. Maybe because he had dreamed of him the night before or thought he dreamed. Neku had not seen him, only heard a voice that sang sadly and melodiously to himself and was sure that the voice belonged to the cursed Kiryu Yoshiya.

He knew he ought to hate the boy for all the harm he had done to him. The truth was that he could never dislike him. Joshua annoyed him, drove him mad, and was totally indifferent to the rest of the world, but he missed the cynicism, the hints, the arrogance, the half-phrases. Neku missed the unfair smile of his. He even missed the all lies.

Scenes from everything he had lived five years ago would flashed in his head as he collected orders or cleaned the tables in his job; and even before his lunch break he knew he would not be able to sweep Joshua out of his thoughts that time.

When his lunchtime arrived, Neku pulled the headphones and left the cafeteria where he worked, walking randomly through the well-known streets of Shibuya. The loud music on the earpieces hid conversations and noises from the street and Neku tried his best to avoid all thinking he had with his former partner, but he could not. Five years was a long time to foster all kinds of ideas and illusions about the boy. Joshua could be in a new sadistic game in the UG, could have abandoned his position of Composer, could be by his side leading a normal life. Since Neku had thinking about that last option, a few months after the end of the Reapers' Game, the idea had become his constant companion.

He liked Joshua, even if he pretended not to like. It was not the same feeling he had for Shiki, Beat or Rhyme, or his parents, or coworkers in the cafeteria, or any girl he meet. Neku was sure what kind of liking he was, but he ignored the feeling or tried.

When he had found his distracted steps, he had been take to the Hachiko statue in the center of Shibuya. The petrified dog kept his eyes alert for the owner who would never appear.

Neku remembered Shiki saying that people touched the stone and made a wish. He felt stupid when he felt compelled to do it. But what would he ask for? To his misfortune, Joshua crossed his thoughts and the hand, which slowly approached the petrified paw, stopped. Certainly, Neku was not going to make any wish, much less Joshua-related, or should it?

He took a deep breath and closed the distance between his hand and the icy stone. He wanted to see Joshua one more time, just one more time. He felt his face flush and removed the hand, tucking into the pocket of his uniform. He was no dreamy girl like Shiki; a stone dog would not make his wish.

He went back to work and tried to concentrate on his duties, without success. Josh seemed to have been laser-drawn in his brain and his image was there while Neku charging a wrong bill or changing customers' requests, leaving them impatient and nervous. Almost at the end of his turn, a client of discolored hair, just like Joshua, appeared in the cafeteria just to make him even more upset. Although was no physical resemblance between the client and the ex-partner, Neku could not take his eyes off the young man who noticed that he was the stares and complained to the manager. At the end of the day, Sakuraba received a warning for embarrassing the client and his boss made it clear that he would not tolerate this kind of situation happening again.

When he left work, he saw dark clouds of rain scratching the skyscraper terraces in the Japanese capital. He stuffed the headphones on and walked quickly to get home before the water fell on him. His steps led him back to the Hachiko statue in the center of Shibuya. The petrified dog kept his eyes steady, waiting to be washed away by the torrential rain that would fall soon. The boy remembered the wish he'd made for the statue during his lunch and felt even more stupid, why had he come to Shiki's conversation?

Despite the accelerated steps, he could not get home in time, the rain reached him halfway, cold and intense, and Neku had to run on the sodden sidewalks until he reached home. His hair was wet, he was cold and his clothes were clinging to his body. The headphone had been stuff inside the uniform and although damp, it looked whole. He threw it on the bedside table, took off his wet uniform and went in search of a hot bath.

The bath should be comforting, but the hot water in contact with icy skin looked like needles piercing his skin. He remembered Hachiko, inert in the rain and for some reason, it left him depressed.

When he returned to his room in pajamas and a towel wrapped around his wet hair, he felt his stomach growl, but no matter how hungry he was, he had no desire to eat. The world collapsed out there in rain and thunder, but in the comfort of his bedroom, Neku just wanted to sleep.

He threw himself on the bed and reached for the headphones on the bedside table, the small display indicated that the battery had gone down and would need recharging. With a sigh, he returned it to the table, next to the calendar.

The calendar marked May 13, wrong day. Neku had simply forgotten to turn the pages. He picked up the object and turned it to the present date. There was a note that he could not remember more than it was. The day was circle, and the kanji beside it had been scrawl in speed and incomprehensible way.

Whatever it was no longer mattered. He turned the calendar to the table. He stared at the heavy rain outside and closed his eyes. Neku slept faster than usual. In a few minutes he was already plunged into a strange, somber dream.

It was in the center of Shibuya, near Hachiko statue. It rained a lot and there was no one on the street, not even an umbrella. He was lonely, staring at the petrified dog when he heard the sound of footsteps skating water, but he did not have time to turn around. He felt a pair of hands covering his ears, and a melodious voice fighting against the noise of the rain to make itself heard. It was an old melancholy song that Neku remembered hearing his grandmother sing. He recognized the words, the melody, but not the voice. When he tried to turn around to face one standing behind him, he felt cold hands tighten, trying to keep him in the original position.

He woke up sweaty and sat down on the bed all of a sudden. It was still dark, it was raining outside, and its window was strangely open. The discharged headphones still rested on the table. For a second he smelled something familiar in the room, something like wildflowers and Chantilly cream. It was Joshua's scent. However, it could not be him; Neku'd never seen him again. He had never heard none from the boy again. It would be no reason for him to appear there. He blamed that his thought of the boy.

He collapsed on the bed and stared at the ceiling in the gloom. He tried to fall asleep again but could not. The noise of the rain against the metal rail near his window made him uncomfortable. The fact that his window was mysteriously open bothered him. The smell still in the room terrified him. For two bloody nights, Neku had dreamed of the same song and Joshua. Why? Why now?

Suddenly he heard a loud crash and through the window, he saw lightning strike across the sky and down to the ground. Lightning had fallen and hit something right in the center of Shibuya.

Hachiko. Out of nowhere, he had had a strange feeling about the statue, and he felt a need to go there. He stared at the rain that lashed the night and wondered how far he had to go. He shook his head, it was just a silly foreboding, and he would not venture into the rain in Shibuya in the middle of the night because of a thunderbolt that might have struck the stupid statue.

=8=

There was so much water in his sneakers. Orange hair dripped and water ran down the collar of his shirt. Surely, he would catch a cold, and his mind would punish himself for being so weak and go out at two in the morning just to check a statue he saw daily.

There was almost no one on the street. He arrived at square; after crossing several streets walked quickly. He rested his hands on his knee and tried to breathe in the air, but swallowed a great deal of rain.

Finally, when he recovered a little, he approached the statue. It was there, inert, wet and safe. The lightning bolt had not hit it, and he felt like a complete idiot to have run home to the square that hour. Hachiko stared at him as if expecting something and Neku instinctively touched the statue. He remembered the wish he had made the day before. A silly and empty wish.

He took a step back, intending to return home when he felt a pair of long, cold hands covering his ears and an old song resonating slowly.

He felt his body tremble at the touch and the urge to turn his body, but stopped the movement in half and slowly raised his hands, wrapping the slender wrists with his fingers.

"Joshua?"

There was no answer, only the song went on and it was so soft and clear that it ignored the noise of the rain, as if it were being sing inside his head.

"Josh..."

"Oh, you'll end up with all fun, Neku". The soft voice sounded slowly, ticking the pronunciation of his name.

Neku shuddered. He tightened his grip on his wrists and stared at the petrified dog in front of him. He was not dreaming, not like the other nights, the rain seemed really cold and uncomfortable and the icy air began to scratch his throat.

"What are you doing here?"

"You were sleeping very badly; I thought a quiet song could help you..."

"But ..."

"How I know? I am the Composer of Shibuya remember? I know many things..."

"So you're still like Composer..." Neku voice came out deeply sad.

"This is my mission, my destiny" Joshua felt the hands that held his trembling.

"I thought you did not care about those rules and fate," he muttered in the night.

"I don't care, but even I need to be accountable to someone."

"Then that's it? After everything you've made, you just bowed your head and decided to be the doggie of someone with more powers than you?" Neku words came out aggressive and high in the rain.

"I see our little Neku still has very bad opinions about me" Joshua was that damned smug tone in the voice that Sakuraba detested.

"Then why are you here? To comfort someone is not your way. Was you that lonely?" He teased.

Neku felt Joshua's hands, still covering his ears, twitching against his orange hair.

"I'm not lonely." His voice was more aggressive than he'd expected.

"You were before."

"You too."

"I still am..."

"How can be? You have friends now." Joshua was that damned cynicism in his voice. Neku had friends now; to say that he was lonely was a nonsense of spoiled child desirous of attention.

"But I do not have you." The sentence caught Joshua off guard. As much as he was aware of Neku's feelings, he did not expect the boy tell them openly. In fact, even Neku himself was not expecting to give way to those feelings.

"Do not you think it's a very selfish wish to have me for you?" He scoffed.

"I don't care."

"You have not changed at all." Joshua was a smile on the face, a mixture of sarcasm and contentment. He liked the changes in Neku, but he also liked his old ways. Of your selfishness and your neglect. The way he pretended neglect.

The two of them stayed in silence that was broken only by the rumbling of thunder and the dripping rain.

"Is that why you asked Hachiko?" Joshua asked. The hands dropped Neku ears, and wrapped themselves around Neku neck. Neku realized from the contact that Joshua was taller than he was. Joshua had always been two inches shorter when he'd grown so much?

"Yes." He felt his cheeks flush, until that damn thing he knew?

"You know I cannot stay." He was a casual tone.

"You know you can stay if you want." Neku hands, still holding Joshua thin wrists, twitched slightly as if to confirm his words.

"Even if I'm not here, I've always been with you and always will be. After all, I chose you." His voice came out sweet. "May 22, remember?"

That was Neku made a note in his calendar. Not the day the Reapers' game had ended, nor the week Joshua had had as his partner. It was the first time he had seen Joshua, in front of the CAT mural, when Composer had shot him and made him his proxy. The day Joshua had chosen him.

Neku pulled his thin arms and turned, but he did not have time to look his delicate face. A sea of light hair invaded his vision and very warm lips touched his.

"You'll always be mine." Joshua voice sounded melodious in the rain, and as if Neku'd never been there Joshua was gone.

Despite the short kiss, Neku was sure that Joshua was taller and older and that should be his real appearance as Composer.

Neku hands were still wrap around Joshua nonexistent wrists and his lips were hot, almost flaming. No one in the street had seen such a meeting and no one, other than Hachiko, had to know about his feelings by the damn arrogant.

The rain had stopped and thunders and lightning had ceased. Neku stuck his hands in his pockets and slowly returned home, silly grin on his face, whistling the song that Joshua had whispered in his ears. He had not had a chance to ask why he chose that song that was one of his childhood favorites. However, Neku suspected Joshua knew this; Joshua knew everything about him.

As he going home he made a mental note, he needed to add that song to the playlist of his headphones.

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 **N/T:** It's a long time that I post any story. I was really sad with my poor English and with some offensive comments. Now, I still worried about my writing, but I think I'd try. I'll never make my English better if I don't use it.

Well, I apologize right now about my grammar and possible mistakes. I'm working hard to improve my nglish skills. If you have found something wrong, please correct me. I will be very grateful.

If you like, please comment!


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